Describes assignments which engage students and are suitable for end of year: (1) a video or booklet for incoming students describing what the grade they are about to enter is all about; (2) a book of poetry for a special person; (3) a research packet for next year's students; and (4) a letter from parents explaining their feelings for their…

Describes how one instructor incorporates daily poetry "breaks" in middle school. Explains that students begin by listening to Eve Merriam's "How to Eat a Poem," then imitate poems first in pantomime, then with sound and action. Notes that students later write and trade poems, and end the term with a poetry festival. (SG)

Lists outstanding trade books for use in K-eight social studies as determined by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council and published in 1988. Evaluates books based upon their emphasis on human relations, presentation of original theme, readability, and format. Indicates reading level, publishing information,…

Study evaluates the assumption that when preservice teachers' subject matter knowledge is enhanced by formal psychological understanding of learners, superior instruction results. Analyzing preservice language arts teachers' responses to a student's request for feedback about his poem found that formalist thinking predominated over instructional…

Depicts Poetry I, a computerized lesson designed to introduce undergraduates to poetry's fundamentals and maximize student involvement. Driven by DECTalk's verse processor, the lesson teaches poetry's concepts, directs students to write and revise a limerick, and evaluates students' work. Highlights preliminary responses that demonstrate Poetry…

Symbiotic relationships exist between language, culture, and poetry. Successful classroom teaching acknowledges these relationships. Teaching poetry to children up to age 12 may be improved by addressing these relationships in initial teacher education. A research project involving teachers, student teachers, and children has explored these…

Discusses building a multicultural audio collection for a library. Gives some guidelines about selecting materials that really represent different cultures. Audio materials that are considered fall roughly into the categories of children's stories, didactic materials, oral histories, poetry and folktales, and music. The goal is an authentic…

Presents resource materials on the Caribbean for teachers and students. Lists works in the following areas: nonfiction for secondary students; background information and teacher guides; fiction by Caribbean writers; fiction anthologies; and poetry. Also identifies sources for books, films, and school district publications. (CH)

Provides lesson plans for library media activities for grades 3-4 reading/language arts, grades 3-5 art/social studies, grades 4-5 physical education/social studies, grades 4-6 science, grades 4-8 reading/language arts, and grades 6-7 social studies. Lists print and nonprint resources and discusses library media skills and subject area objectives,…

Profiles a course that challenges college seniors to gain new perspectives, skills, experiences, and insights into their own creative and imaginative processes. The course uses the work of Joseph Cornell who constructed enigmatic, box-like assemblages from found objects. Students construct their own boxes and consider future applications of this…

Provides elementary and middle school library media specialists with criteria for evaluating poetry collections, including balancing contemporary and traditional poetry and responding to children's preferences; discusses ways to promote poetry with both students and teachers; and includes a selected bibliography of 60 recommended poetry books.…

Examines the affective dimension of second-language comprehension by analyzing a transcript from a case study in which children conversed about their engagement with stories. Findings suggest that texts may be understood in the informational sense without true comprehension of meaning at the affective level. Implications for classroom practice are…

This article reviews resources that offer personal insights and lessons from families of children with disabilities. Five books are reviewed that offer perspectives from fathers and mothers on raising and coping with a child with a disability, along with three Web sites for families of children with disabilities or premature infants. (CR)

Maintains that creative writing should be no less a part of the elementary social-studies writing program than other expository forms. Discusses using the poetic form, the cinquain, to teach about Mexican vaqueras and vaqueros in an elementary unit on the American Southwest. Includes illustrations and instructional materials. (MJP)

An exemplary teacher who perfected portfolio writing techniques with his seventh-graders fears that abandoning KIRIS (Kentucky Instructional Results Information System) for a more conventional testing system will discourage students' riskier ventures. Talented teachers must balance teaching writing as an artistic process with meeting concrete…